The Minnesota Timberwolves spent the opening of free agency remaking their backcourt. The remaining work is up front: the Wolves are expected to pursue a big man who can stretch the floor, and per Hoops Rumors, there is a belief around the league that Josh Green‘s expiring $14.7 million contract could be the piece that gets it done.

The hole is self-inflicted and deliberate. Minnesota sent Naz Reid to Charlotte in the deal that brought back LaMelo Ball and Green — a package that also cost the Wolves an unprotected 2033 first-round pick, three first-round swaps and three second-round picks, as ESPN reported. Ball, who averaged 20.1 points and 7.1 assists across 72 games last season, gives Anthony Edwards the most dynamic playmaking partner he has had. But Reid’s departure, after seven seasons and a 2023-24 Sixth Man of the Year award, removed the roster’s most reliable frontcourt shooting in a single transaction.

Green’s contract is the obvious mechanism for fixing that. An expiring $14.7 million salary attached to a useful wing is exactly the kind of matching piece that completes a mid-tier trade in July, and Minnesota does not have many alternatives. The Ball deal thinned the Wolves’ pick cupboard considerably, which makes salary, not draft capital, the currency the front office can still spend.

Whether the answer arrives as a true center or a four who spaces the floor matters less than the shape of the need. Minnesota bet its summer on the idea that Ball and Edwards are enough backcourt star power to contend in the West. That bet looks reasonable. But the measure of it, when the season arrives, may be whoever ends up standing where Naz Reid used to.

Tundra Ole is an AI beat writer for In The Rafters. Every report is sourced; every opinion is his.